That's the mid-week promise from Halas Hall, anyway. And it's a top priority as the Bears turn the page from a season-opening effort in which their defense generated little pressure against Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton.

The final stats: one sack, two quarterback hurries.

No wonder Dalton seemed so relaxed and so composed as he led the Bengals on touchdown drives of 97, 91 and 90 yards.

Sure, Tucker acknowledges the Bengals did an admirable job limiting the Bears' rush with Dalton getting the ball out quickly on many of his throws. But that's too convenient a crutch.

"The ball was out quick," Tucker said. "But really there's no excuse and no explanation."

There is a new vow, though. The pass rush is coming.

"That has been a big point of emphasis already this week," Tucker said. "We have to generate the pass rush with four (guys)."

Obviously, with the Vikings and MVP running back Adrian Peterson coming to town, the predominant focus this week centers on stopping the run. That's why the phrase "population tackling" suddenly is generating so much buzz in Lake Forest.

Peterson piled up 262 of his 2,097 yards last season against the Bears, plowing through tacklers, delivering nasty cutbacks and reminding all that even when defended properly, he can break open a game. So the Bears will aim to meet each of Peterson's runs Sunday with four, five, six defenders.

Heck, if they could get the entire population inside Soldier Field to assist they would.

But to improve upon a mostly ordinary defensive performance in the opener, the front four will have to be far more active and disruptive.

Defensive end Julius Peppers? He played 51 snaps against the Bengals and didn't register a sack, a quarterback hurry or even a tackle. The harshest critics labeled it a disappearing act. At best, it was a subpar outing. But while Bears coaches stressed that Peppers needs to be much better going forward, they weren't sounding the alarm after reviewing Sunday's triumph.

"I saw a guy who was playing within the defense, trying to do what he could do to help us win," Tucker said. "I thought he did a solid job with what we asked him to do."

Added coach Marc Trestman: "I don't think you have to have three sacks or two sacks to impact the game. He played his position. He was effective at times and we were ineffective collectively at times. But he's one guy in 11."

Trestman asserted Peppers isn't dealing with any kind of injury that could have slowed him in Week 1.

"I've seen him run and work in practice. I don't think that's an issue at all," Trestman said. "I don't know what he said about it, but I don't see it on tape."

Peppers has said nothing about it publicly, declining to speak to reporters Wednesday. What's certain: He and the pass rush should have a golden opportunity to do damage in Week 2 against Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder, who bungled his way to three interceptions and a fumble in his team's 34-24 season-opening loss to the host Lions.

Ponder has been consistently woeful in division road games during his career, averaging 155 passing yards in six starts. He also has had just five touchdown passes against 13 turnovers in those contests.

The Bears' takeaway machine knows there will be opportunities to fluster Ponder into additional miscues, but only if the front four can get going

"The biggest thing is getting that pressure on him," end Corey Wootton said. "Forcing them into turnovers and trying to get the ball out."

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Head Coach

Last year, the Vikings offensive line was 7th best in terms of penalties. As far as their run game goes, they were 15th and 13th, respectively on running on the outside of the left and right tackles, 8th and 5th behind the tackles, and 19th running it up the middle. This should dictate that, if Paea can ride that hot streak he had in the 2nd half of the last game into this one, we'll have a REALLY good shot of stuffing AP on "up the middle" runs. Hopefully Peppers and Wooten can control the outside, and force him to run up the middel. Chicago ranked 1st (according to Football outsiders) on stopping the run, and stuffed 24% of all runs. This, I believe, will be significantly more important to watch for than the pass rush.

Ponder only had 2 200+ passing games after Percy Harvin (who was considered an OPY candidate at the time of his injury, in week 9) was lost for the season. Cutler had only one game last year in which both his completion percentage and passing yards were better than the opening game this year (which also happened in week 1, but against a horrible Colts defense). Not enough sample size to go out on a limb and say this is proof Cutler's going to be significantly better, but it's another stat to keep in mind.

IDK, I'm kinda tired (homework and this site been keeping me busy), but this all makes me really think their weakness in the running game (up the middle) vs. our strength in stopping the run will make all the difference in the world. With Briggs and Peppers manning the weaker side of the Vikings running game, it might be on Anderson and Wooton to make a lasting impression. If Trestman's offensive strategy to get the right side of the line fully into the game by taking it slow in the first half, unless Forte or Marshall can break off some big plays (keep in mind the Vikes are starting 3 rookies on the defense), it would make sense to guess that the Vikings WILL be running the entire first half. The question is: will it wear out our defense in the second half?

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Assistant Head Coach

SuperFanDBS Writer

Last year, the Vikings offensive line was 7th best in terms of penalties. As far as their run game goes, they were 15th and 13th, respectively on running on the outside of the left and right tackles, 8th and 5th behind the tackles, and 19th running it up the middle. This should dictate that, if Paea can ride that hot streak he had in the 2nd half of the last game into this one, we'll have a REALLY good shot of stuffing AP on "up the middle" runs. Hopefully Peppers and Wooten can control the outside, and force him to run up the middel. Chicago ranked 1st (according to Football outsiders) on stopping the run, and stuffed 24% of all runs. This, I believe, will be significantly more important to watch for than the pass rush.

Ponder only had 2 200+ passing games after Percy Harvin (who was considered an OPY candidate at the time of his injury, in week 9) was lost for the season. Cutler had only one game last year in which both his completion percentage and passing yards were better than the opening game this year (which also happened in week 1, but against a horrible Colts defense). Not enough sample size to go out on a limb and say this is proof Cutler's going to be significantly better, but it's another stat to keep in mind.

IDK, I'm kinda tired (homework and this site been keeping me busy), but this all makes me really think their weakness in the running game (up the middle) vs. our strength in stopping the run will make all the difference in the world. With Briggs and Peppers manning the weaker side of the Vikings running game, it might be on Anderson and Wooton to make a lasting impression. If Trestman's offensive strategy to get the right side of the line fully into the game by taking it slow in the first half, unless Forte or Marshall can break off some big plays (keep in mind the Vikes are starting 3 rookies on the defense), it would make sense to guess that the Vikings WILL be running the entire first half. The question is: will it wear out our defense in the second half?

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That's a lot of great information, thanks for posting it. It helps me to put some of this into perspective.

The Bears will need to tackle better. With the power and speed combo of AP, if you miss a tackle, it's often a TD. He's gone. And if they're running the ball effectively, moving the chains, and eating up the clock, it's a killer. There have been games where AP utterly destroyed us. Every single tackle of AP counts bigtime in this game.

Someone earlier posted that Peppers is ancient. He's still going to have a Pro Bowl level year, and as Ric pointed out, Pep & Melton missed a significant amount of TC play, so of course they have some rust to knock off. I figure they'll both be rock solid from here on out. I'm not worried at all about our DL in this game, but I am hoping our safeties and LB's are solid as a rock. They're going to have to be solid in this game, and IF they are, then this will be a win. If not, then we'd better hope the offense can bail us out with a big day. Of course if AP is running the ball effectively, and eating up the clock time - that limits our offenses opportunities.

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DaBears Ditka

SuperFanDBS Writer

I want to see how the Dl performs though the first 4 games as a whole, then make a decision. Same w/DJ and Anderson. Anderson made a hell of a first impression, and DJ not so much, but I want to see what really comes to be over the 1st qtr to see how the team really plays.

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